The Kenosha telegraph. [volume] (Kenosha, Wis.) 1860-1888, 1887-06-10
HIS ONLY SAFETY.

A Temperance Talk to Young Men, by p
T. Barnum - His Reformation Forty
| Years Ago.
should have been in my grave
twenty or thirty years ago if had not
quit drinking intoxicating liquors, as I
did, in 1917. l had contracted the
habit, had built up blind, unnatural
appetite for strong drinks, and really
liked the taste of every kind of liquor
though | suspect l liked the effects
still better-began to grow careless
and "slothful in business" and put off
until next week what ought to have
dSne to-day. Fortunately I discovered
that the habit was destroying my
health and my worldly prospects, and
by Il most determined will power I
conquered the powerful appetite which
| had acquired for intoxicants and
broke it forever. 1 knew that habit
was second nature and that the I'M
NATURAL appetite for strong drinks was
stronger than nature itself, for every
glass of liquor drank increased the de-
sire for another glass, and so on ad
ttbitun,, and, therefore, to have con-
| quered such a fearful habit was the
saving of my life and all that was
worth living for.
When found myself secure from
falling back into the whirlpool of in
toxicants, felt as shipwrecked per-
son must feel when his life is barely
saved by the. life-boat while many of
his fellow-passengers were still strug-
Cling in the waves. Being saved HIM
self he is eXcitedly anxious to save
others. I felt so overjoyed at being
snatched from a habit which was sure
ly dragging me down to misery and
death that found my greatest pleasure
consisted in circulating the Temper
ance pledge, giving Temperance lect-
ures free of charge all over the coun-
try, and using every effort in my power
to enlighten public sentiment in regard
to the fearful delusion of strong
drink.
particularly urged young men and
young women, as [ now do, to start
right in life, to avoid this greatest evil
in the land-because it is the parent
of nearly every other evil known, and
is sure to utterly destroy nine-tenths
of those who form the drinking habit.
l begged them to touch not single
drop, because, like opium, morphine
and other narcotics, the drinking of
liquor calls for more, more and more,
to produce the same effect that a little
produced at first, and thus an artificial
and unnatural appetite was created that
proved irresistible in great majority
of cases. l showed the youth of this
country that their health, happiness
and success in life, as well as of their
posterity, depended upon whether they
started life's journey on whisky, beer
and other brain-muddlers, or on cold
water, natures beverage, which gives
the clear brain. the firm hand,
the strong resolution and the noble
ambition to succeed in life financially
and morally.
am glad to know that l have start
ed thousands of young persons on the
right track, and that their example will
save hundreds of thousands of their
posterity and fellow beings. 1t is one
of the greatest pleasures of the even
ing of my life that can look back and
see the multitude of young married
men, who were running themselves and
families by this social, delusive and alb
solutely fatal habit of dram-drinking,
whom 1 have been able to convince
that they were on the wrong track, and
to induce them to switch off and take
the Temperance track for life. Many
wife and son and daughter have
clasped me by the hand and with
streaming eyes have thanked me for
having saved them from misery and
degradation, and saving their father
and husband.
Young married men in Bridgeport,
who were my tenants, [ have induced
to abandon the use of liquor and tobac-
co on condition that would build and
sell them a house on credit to be paid
for by installments. Numbers of such
men with growing families have
in a few years owned the houses
they lived in, clear from debt,
they having saved the money by
cutting off their rum and tobac-
co expenses, and earned more money
by their renewed energy, strength and
ambition. There is not one redeeming
quality in the liquor-drinking habit. 1t
does no possible good and it inficts all
manner of evil upon its victim, his
family and friends. 1t is the most de-
grading, poverty breeding and utterly
destructive infatuatiOn that ever para
lyzed the hopes, comforts and charac-
tiers of the people Of this otherwise
blessed America. p Z. BarnaIn1.